Wednesday, December 9, 2009 metrolife 13 August 1978: Jonathan Wilkes is born. 1993: Plays for Everton youth team until he is deemed not good enough to do so professionally. Goes into showbiz instead. 1996: Wins the Cameron Macintosh Young Entertainer Of The Year award and becomes the youngest person to have their own show at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. 2000: Lands a record deal, presumably facilitated by being best mates with Robbie Williams. 5 March 2001: Jonathans charisma-free debut single Just Another Day is released. It peaks at No.24 and hes dropped by the label. Subsequently croons duet Me And My Shadow with pal Robbie on Williams album Swing When Youre Winning. 2002: Lands the role of Frank N Furter in the Rocky Horror Show alongside Nasty Nick from Big Brother. Robbie quips: This isnt the first time Ive seen him in a suspender belt and mask. 2003: Lands presenting job on Youve Been Framed, taking over from the big lass off Emmerdale. His catchphrase is Remember... I dont have a catchphrase. Is replaced by Harry Hill for the next series. 2004: Lands presenting job on short-lived disaster Love On A Saturday Night as Davina McCalls sidekick. Is given the boot halfway through the series. Marries wife Nikki later in the year. 2006: Appears on Robbies Close Encounters world tour singing Me And My Shadow. Later complains about press intrusion. As if. 2008: Judges Stokes Top Talent. Appears in touring musical version of The Wedding Singer. Mar 2009: Stars in Ben Eltons Queen musical We Will Rock You, which tours here in the New Year. Sep 2009: Opens a fame school in Stoke. Reportedly wants the woman who played Chardonnay on Footballers Wives to be the drama teacher. Dec 2009: Appears in Dick Whittington in Stoke. Fans could have caught him signing autographs in the Potteries Shopping Centre, by the customer services desk, last week. Scott Tenorman DOWN THE DUMPER This weeks fickle finger of fame pokes Jonathan Wilkes GIG Simple Minds For a while there, it seemed Simple Minds were in serious danger of becoming the band that time and fashion forgot. In the 1980s, Jim Kerr and co were second only to U2 in their ability to fill a stadium with super- earnest fans (even achieving the holy grail of packing Croke Park). Alas, they didnt have Bono and chums knack for constant reinvention and soon became a byword for bloated arena pomposity no matter that their early albums were spiky new- wave affairs that channelled their rise from the (apparently rather mean) streets of late-1970s Glasgow. Lately, however, Simple Minds have managed to claw their way back to semi- relevance notwithstanding its ber-naff name, this years Graffiti Soul LP had plenty of sparkle and bite (a reflection, perhaps, of their decision to go home to Glasgow to record it). And, when you get past the mullets and paisley shirts, lots of their 1980s output deserves a dusting down: Dont You (Forget About Me) remains the definitive teen anthem. And if youre really craving a nostalgia fix, its worth arriving early to catch support act Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, too. Eamon de Paor Tonight, The O2, East Link Bridge, North Wall Quay D1, 6.30pm, 49.20. Tel: 0818 719 300. www.simpleminds.com Staying In Christmas books for art lovers Caravaggio: The Complete Works Taschen, 110 Sixteenth-century Italian artist Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio may be our most misunderstood Old Master but, since his rediscovery at the start of the 20th century, few painters of his era have captured our modern imagination so forcefully. Caravaggio: The Complete Works is a sumptuous, giant-sized survey of his work, whose gorgeous reproductions offer something very close to seeing a Caravaggio canvas in the flesh that dramatic handling of light, the disconcerting mimetic quality of his painting and the sheer muscular presence of his subjects are thrillingly captured here. Sebastian Schutze offers sensible commentary on Caravaggios oeuvre, setting it in context and emphasising its revolutionary inventiveness, profound contemporary impact and continuing influence. Henri Matisse: Cut-outs Taschen, 157 Theres more Taschen loveliness in Henri Matisse: Cutouts. One volume of this boxset is a rather beautiful facsimile of 1947s Jazz, his seminal cut-out work presented in original unbound form and even on similar paper. The other volume is an entertaining and enlightening look at the old Fauvists late invention of using gouache-painted cut-outs to create his exuberant works; a solution to his frailty in old age, which he cheerfully dubbed painting with scissors. Lush descriptions of his 1930 trip to Tahiti (a key influence), plus photographs, reproductions of other late works and texts by Matisse and others all add up to a spectacular treat. Anish Kapoor Phaidon, 70 Contemporary British sculptor Anish Kapoor has captured imaginations across the world with his sensual creations; from the crouched, reflective Cloud Gate in Chicagos Millennium Park to the viscerally taut, red PVC of Tate Modern sculpture Marsyas. This extensive monologue comes wrapped in blood-red plastic that recalls the wax currently coating the London Royal Academys walls and door frames for the artists blockbuster exhibition. It also has scholarly essays discussing topics such as Kapoors painterly understanding of colour a transcribed interview and a full chronology. But most of all, its a glossily gorgeous pictorial record of Kapoors greatest hits. Grayson Perry Thames & Hudson, 41 Transvestite potter Grayson Perry stole hearts when he accepted the 2003 Turner Prize dressed as his alter ego Claire. Perry has forged a mischievous furrow examining urgent anxieties about sex and class through the medium of beautifully crafted ceramics a clash of opposites that raises important questions about good and bad taste in devilish fashion. Jacky Kleins insightful dissection of Perrys art places him in historical and contemporary contexts, while around 150 of Perrys pieces are presented including works in other media such as quilts and bronze sculpture, all lovingly photographed and accompanied by Perrys own commentary. Painting Today Phaidon, 52 Tony Godfreys Painting Today is an impressive sweep through the evolution of current styles in a medium many in the art-critical elite have dismissed as now redundant. Although Godfrey is wary of Saatchi-like triumph of painting pronouncements, his sensitive look at the experience of painting makes a good case for the robust health of this art form around the world. Sixteen clear, well-argued thematic chapters, considering the likes of neo-expressionism, photo-realism, still life and the Leipzig School, look at how painters since 1968 have approached and subverted tradition, desire, beauty, the body and spirituality. Siobhn Murphy Flesh: Surveying the work of Caravaggio greetings cards and calendars. This doesnt take from the value of the original shot, it merely gives us more options. I find it fascinating that in the US, photography is considered a major art form probably because the country is so young and photography has developed alongside other art forms like drawing and painting. What was the first photograph you ever took? When I was in fifth year at school, I took photographs for a project on fishing. This is where my love for photography really started. The first picture I took is Solitude, a moonlit boat in Oysterhaven. Its still one of the most popular photographs although it was taken in 1981! Whats your most beautiful Irish location? Ive done most of my shooting on the West Coast of Ireland as I find this a spectacular landscape, but Ive also been inspired by the Wicklow landscape which is the only eastern location outside of Dublin Ive shot. And if I could only ever shoot in one place Id definitely choose the Bara Peninsula. Lucy White The Giles Norman Gallery is situated in Powerscourt Townhouse, South William Street D2. www.gilesnorman.com index.html2.html3.html4.html5.html6.html7.html8.html9.html10.html11.html12.html13.html14.html15.html16.html17.html18.html19.html20.html21.html22.html23.html24.html25.html26.html27.html